The dialogue built on an investigation conducted by the United States to determine how the response from the international organisations (IOs) and NGOs may change, or even cease, if an outbreak is determined to be intentional, or if the outbreak spread to a non-permissive environment.
The study reached out to key stakeholders from relevant response organisations who were asked to describe how their organisations would have responded to a fictional scenario in which a non-state actor claims responsibility for new cases of Ebola in an adjacent geographical area with a previously unexposed population. The study subsequently reached out to major bilateral donors to the Ebola response to better understand the challenges and approaches nations would take in the event of a deliberate component to a humanitarian disaster response.
This meeting brought together a selected group of multi-sector participants to glean what has been learned so far and develop firm proposals for action that can be taken.
